The big push, sources said, will come in the form of an amendment drafted by Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, R-Delaware County, that will systematically attempt to reel in the 26 votes needed for passage.

“We’re making tremendous progress,” Pileggi said after a four–hour caucus described by several senators as a free-flowing exchange of ideas. “We’re very close” to majority support, he said.

Pileggi may need to nearly run the table and get 26 of his 27 GOP members on board to do it.

As of Wednesday night, Senate Democratic Leader Jay Costa, D-Allegheny County, was still confident that his 23 members would stand firm against anything steps toward privatizing the existing system.

The liquor issue is an important rallying point for the Democrat’s organized labor base.

"I don't believe that they have 26 votes, or that they got any closer to having 26 votes today," said Wendell Young IV, president of the union that represents several thousand state-owned liquor store clerks.

But supporters of privatization clearly felt that they had moved closer to their vote target after the lengthy party caucus, and prospects for passage seemed as bright as they had all week.

“It was a good discussion… I felt it was positive in the sense that everyone was trying to put together this coalition that we can move the bill forward,” said Sen. Rich Alloway, R-Franklin County.

According to some briefed on the closed-door caucus, Pileggi’s effort will try to win over those concerned about established beer distributors by giving them some exclusive rights in a new system, like perhaps being the only private retailers who could sell hard liquor.

In an effort to win lawmakers like Sen. Don White, R-Indiana County, whose many rural constituents have limited shopping options, language was discussed Wednesday to let grocers of a certain size apply for licenses to sell beer and wine without meeting all the restaurant-license provisions that have applied to date to full-size supermarkets like Wegman’s.

White, who voted no on the initial Senate draft in committee on Monday, said Wednesday that language like that could lead him to reconsider.

And in a nod to those wanting stronger steps toward getting the state out of the retail and wholesale booze businesses, sources said the emerging plan would force closure of state stores in a county when at least two times as many private licensees are selling wine and spirits.

It would also force the Liquor Control Board to seek proposals for a private management of the wholesale system after two years in a nod to members who want the state to have a continuing revenue stream from that.

As of last night, it was hard to get many senators to take a public position.

Sen. Stewart Greenleaf, R-Montgomery County, said everything for him will depend on how the concepts are translated into legislative language.

“I’ll decide when I see the final bill,” Greenleaf said. “We don’t have the bill yet.”

Another Republican some have seen as balking at privatization, Sen. John Gordner, R-Columbia County, said his decision will boil down to how the final language effects established beer distributors who have played by the existing rules for decades, and whether the state can retain a strong, continuing revenue stream.

Of course, Senate passage is just the first step in a two-step process that may be running out of time.

House Liquor Control Committee Chairman John Taylor, R-Philadelphia, said Wednesday he was expecting a meeting led by Lt. Gov. Jim Cawley and Corbett Administration staffers on ways that Senate and House bills could be reconciled without losing their majorities.

But some in Senate leadership conceded that they really aren’t in a position to look too far past Thursday’s action.

“First things first,” said Sen. Chuck McIlhinney, R-Bucks County, chairman of the Senate’s Law and Justice Committee and the drafter of the bill that narrowly passed in committee Monday.

“It’s getting 26 votes," McIlhinney said. "And then once we state what we (in the Senate) can get 26 votes for we can decide to do more... But we’re not going to go far outside those parameters.”

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